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The New York Gaming Commission on Tuesday agreed to roll out a new multi-state lottery game on June 13 that would pay the top winner $1,000 a day for life.

The numbers game is called Cash For Life and it would replace the Sweet Million drawing. Commission members voted to bring in the new lottery offering at a meeting on Tuesday in New York City. The new game would include New Jersey players and other states might join in after this year. Interested states include Virginia and Ohio.

Staff of the commission estimate the game will provide $8 million to $9 million a year for public education on top of the roughly $16.6 million Sweet Million generated.

If the people of this state want to resolve the welfare problem, the solution is right here.
1) To get welfare, you have to either a) pay taxes on the total amount including Sec 8 Housing, etc OR
2) Do community service at the rate of one hour for each dollar received at the minimum wage rate.
3) If the person receiving, is TRULY disabled, they have to be certified by their doctor, a STATE Doctor and the medical records be reviewed by a three person medical board to insure there is no fraud.
4) Prosecute any person found to be guilty of welfare fraud to include a PRISON SENTENCE.
Watch how fast the rolls decrease. But you see, the leftists are not serious about welfare reform.

I will have a different comment. They have this multi-state game where you can win a $1,000 for life in other states. It started at 7 million-8million to 1 odds. The next time I ventured to Vermont the odds jumped to 41 million to 1 with the exact same jackpot! It would be interesting to know how the heck they come up with odds. I assume they guestimmate how much they want to profit from each game.

re Walter – ignorance is not your excuse. 100% of the revenue collected for education goes to OSC and is deposited in the Lottery Ed Fund – and is disbursed directly to school districts twice a year. You can find these numbers on the commission’s and comptroller’s website – do a little research before comments without a basis.

WoW!!! Did they also tell you that if too many people win the state will use money from the unclaimed ticket fund to pay the prizes. This is money that would go to the State to hopefully pay for eduation otherwise. Also did the NYS Gaming Comm. report that said NYS Lottery is taking Scratch Games off the shelf before someone wins the Jackpot Prize. What’s up with that Move? Heads I win, Tails you Lose Sucker.

@Darth, A couple of MAJOR problems with your contention. 1) Much of the Clinton era reforms (forced down his throat by the Republican Congress led by Newt) has been watered down by the succeeding leftist dominated Congresses. 2) None of the restriction are ENFORCED. 3) There is no evaluation by a State Doctor or by a medal board to evaluated the so called disability. 4) My reforms are SPECIFIC and DETAILED. The so called under the Clinton Era, were hardly specific and not at all detailed.
Enough with throwing money at a problem. People solved problems not money.

@bbaseball, bad news for you. The money that is earmarked from the Lottery is deducted from the general tax collections so that the money which the Lottery makes is offset. Nice try though. Leftists have been robbing this money for YEARS!

Uh Walter – were you actually paying attention when Romney was complaining about the Welfare-to-Work program – and how his complaints were essentially false?
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Sorry pal, but it is absolutely true that able-bodied people on TANF have to work. Period. And it is most certainly and enforced, contrary to what right wing media tells you. Again, had you been paying attention during the Romney kerfluffle, you would have learned that TANF block grants can get revoked if participation rates aren’t met.
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If PRWORA has been watered down, by all means, name the subsequent legislation that did so.
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Turn off Fox News and see past your cognitive dissonance.

Let me amend my previous post Walter since you seem caught up on your “specific and detailed” reforms.
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1. Taxing welfare benefits is, well, nonsensical, for numerous reasons that any reasonable person would already understand.
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2/3. I refer back to PRWORA and the Welfare-to-Work rules where Romney got a lesson in humility after failing to understand them.
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3. No one gets TANF benefits because they are disabled. You are conflating TANF with disability – which comes from the Social Security Administration. Do you actually know the hoops disabled people have to jump through to actually get approved for SSD or SSDI? Multiple doctors, hearings, yada-yada. In other words, when people who are *not* disabled get disability and game the system, it’s because of a number of unscrupulous or just plain lazy doctors.
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4. People actually *do* get arrested *and* jailed for welfare fraud already. Apparently, you must have missed the umpteen stories about the “wealthy welfare mom” published in this very paper a year or two back – on top of many others about other fraudsters.
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4. If you want *more* fraud actually caught, you *might* actually have to hire more employees to actually look for it instead of complaining about the number of people working for government.
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So no Walter, your proposals aren’t all that novel, new, or innovative. Most – with the exception of the “tax welfare benefits” nonsense already exist. At best, they represent a stereotypical (and woefully misinformed) selfservative viewpoint on social safety net benefits in which *everyone* who uses them is little more than a moocher. Statistics and reality on social services do not support that narrative.

@Darth, False? Not hardly. The Left lambasted him for evening bringing up the subject, but failed miserably to even put forth a single thing he said was wrong. There is a big difference between demonizing and disproving. The TANF is not enforced with any regularity and is at best spotty. I know for a FACT that people who are supposed to be going out and looking for jobs, are not verified as to their quests for a job.
Put these people to work doing community service at government offices and not-for-profit organizations. You might want to turn off CNN and MSNBC and watch a REAL news source.

PS Walter:
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If you know people cheating the system, do what any normal person would do and report them…. Unless, of course, your story is baloney. In which case, you can’t report the non-existent people you know for doing something that said non-existent people aren’t actually non-existentially doing (or not doing, if you will).
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Selfservatives always seem to have “I know a guy” stories about lazy welfare succubi, but interestingly enough, with all those stories, the number of reported complains (and subsequent investigations and convictions) never seems to go up… Why is that?

@Darth, To your 1) Why is it nonsensical. The money they received is INCOME. And they are doing absolutely nothing for it. Either tax ‘em or they can do community service. Pick one.
To your 2) Tell us then why there are more exemptions to this PRWORA “rules” than Carter has pills. The enforcement of this act is a joke at best, a fraud at worst. The RULES ARE NOT ENFORCED. I have seen it time after time. Where have you been?
To your 3) NYS for your information often augments the SSI payments with all kinds of aid including but not limited Sec 8 Housing, Food Stamps, etc.
To your 4) Sure they get arrested. And not one of them does any time. They get a talking to from the judge, a fine, and told to make restitution with probation. Were I come from that is not jail time and not much of a deterrent. More like a “naughty, naughty, naughty.” And then they get to go to another state and do it all over again.
So, Darth, my proposals are not novel, but what is novel is enforcement of them. These leeches should have a choice, either do the community service or pay the tax. Seems you do not know as much as you think you do. With stats I can tell any story I want. You leftists do it all the time. Not it is time for these people to get off the dole and into a job or do community service.

re: Staff of the commission estimate the game will provide $8 million to $9 million a year for public education.
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That’s swell for ‘public education’ — what’s the estimate for total cost to implement, run and maintain this game, in other words how much in total revenue will this game generate?
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The game this game is replacing (sweet million) paid out a paltry $4M in first place prizes in the past 12 months and less $50K in other prizes;
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Match 5 of 6 numbers and win $500.
Match 4 of 6 numbers and win $40.
Match 3 of 6 numbers and win $3.
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NYS Lottery = RIPOFF

Years ago when I was in college, I worked in a Stewart’s shop and one of our regular customers was one of the higher-up people in the lottery commission.
One day she was in the store when another customer bought his lottery tickets.
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Customer: Almost forgot my gambling.
Lottery Woman: Now, now, it’s not “gambling”, it’s “entertainment”.
Me: Yeah, for it to be gambling, you have to have a reasonable chance of winning.
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The dirty look that she gave me…

WOO, They also do not tell you how much money will be offset by the LOSS of Take 5 sales and Instant Take 5 scratch tickets as players switch. The NYS Lottery and it’s Partner Gtech do not seem to realize that there is NOT an unlimited supply of Money for Gambling in NYS. It is time for some politicians to examine this relationship between Lottery and Gtech and see Who has their Hand Out Longer, Gtech or our Governor seeking more campaign contributions.

This is yet another regressive tax by a governor who want’s to balance the budget on the backs of people who are struggling economically. In this economy, which has been destroyed by Wall St., they are desperate to strike it rich along with gambling addicts who cannot help themselves and whose families suffer the consequences!

DUH!

It doesn’t work and if you think there are no negative pathologies for society with ubiquitous gambling outlets, think again!

@Spirit of 76, I have reported PLENTY of them. Fact is that all these leeches get is a slap on the wrist and a “go sin no more. I comment on this “board” to try to get other people as riled up about this scandal as I am. Maybe you should do some soul searching and check out if what I am saying is true? A head in the sand will do none of us any good.

@Darth, “Patently false” from “Politico?” A patently LEFTIST group. I would not trust that group as far as I can throw them. IF you look at their advertisement you will see the words “ADVOCACY GROUP.” So much for “patently false” and “Politico.”

@Darth, Excuse me, I misread, unlike you I am not perfect. But in my defense, PolitiFactC(checkmark) is a TM of The Tampa Bay Times, a well known Leftist papers. So, things equal to the same thing are equal to each other? Your article is a hatchet job which gives OPINION rather than cold hard facts. READ it.

@Norman, Those “imaginary leftist” are in fact the Democrat Party. (You will note I did not say ‘Democratic”.) There is nothing “democratic” about the Democrat Party. They vilify and demonize anyone who disagrees with their approach of throwing money at problems. And for your information, I am not a number as you on the left would like to make us. I am a live breathing human. Pope Francis is the leader of the Catholic Church. He has every right to voice his opinions as I have a GOD GIVEN RIGHT to voice mine, whether or not you agree with me. So loose your holier than thou attitude. NO, sir, I do not think the Pope is at all interested in the intricacies of our decrepit, wasteful welfare system. He is in fact from what I have read interested in the “redistribution of the wealth.” I sir,
oppose that vehemently. IF you want to give to a charity which assists the needy, that is your right and under God your responsibility. However, I ask you, where in the CONSTITUTION of the US does it say that the Federal Government can be involved in Education, Social Services, Heath Care, the environment, etc. If you can find it, you are better than the rest of us.

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